Pickenpack Thies & Co.
1865
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
16.2 × 22.2 cm (6 3/8 × 8 3/4 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, Cynthia Hazen Polsky Gift, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.583 (48b)
Art Historical Context
**Pickenpack Thies & Co (1865) is a striking albumen silver print by John Thomson, a pioneering Scottish renowned for his documentary work. Captured from a glass negative, this 16.2 × 22.2 cm image exemplifies mid-19th-century photography technical leap forward. Albumen prints, coated with egg white for a glossy surface, produced rich tones and fine detail, making them ideal for portraits and commercial scenes like this one, which likely depicts the German trading firm "Pickenpack Thies & Co." Thomson, active in the 1860s, honed his skills in street photography and photojournalism, later immo...
About the Artist
John Thomson · 1837–1921
John Thomson (1837–1921), a pioneering Scottish photographer, was born on 14 June 1837 in Edinburgh as the eighth of nine children to William Thomson, a tobacco spinner and trader, and Isabella Newlands.) After schooling in the early 1850s, he apprenticed with a local optical and scientific instrument manufacturer, where he mastered the principles of photography, completing his training around 185...